SACRAMENTO / Trial focuses on notation: warrior's creed or simple prayer / Translation of Arabic words on slip of paper called evidence that Lodi man was waiting for orders to harm the U.S.

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, March 15, 2006

SACRAMENTO / Trial focuses on notation: warrior's creed or simple prayer / Translation of Arabic words on slip of paper called evidence that Lodi man was waiting for orders to harm the U.S.

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2006-03-15 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- A prosecutor and a defense attorney clashed Tuesday over whether a tiny piece of paper, folded twice in the pocket of a wallet carried by a 23-year-old Lodi man, represented a declaration of holy war or benign words passed down from the prophet Muhammad.

The government believes a supplication on the paper, scrawled in Arabic, corroborates charges that Hamid Hayat attended a Pakistani terror camp and returned to the United States last May to await attack orders.

Hayat's attorney, who says he never went to such a camp, said the prayer has been mistranslated and misinterpreted.

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Khaleel Mohammed, a San Diego State professor of religious studies that the government hired last year, testified Tuesday in U.S. District Court to the following translation: "Oh Allah, we place you at their throats and we seek refuge in you from their evils."

Citing Islamic texts, Mohammed said the supplication would be carried by a holy warrior ready to fight the enemies of Islam. He suggested that the throat is "the most vulnerable spot" for a "mortal wound," and added, "You are asking God to be your champion."

Mohammed said that while studying in Saudi Arabia he had encountered holy warriors who carried such expressions inside amulets because they sought divine protection and recognition -- including certain burial rites -- if they were killed. "It could be recited," he said, "before one goes into battle."

But Hayat's attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, suggested during her cross-examination of Mohammed that his translation was too literal and mistaken, with the words inside the wallet little more than a common prayer to Allah for protection.

Mojaddidi sparred with the government expert, questioning his credentials in Arabic translation and suggesting that he should have consulted with existing translations of the supplication into English, such as "Oh Allah, we ask you to face them and seek your protection against their evil."

"That is an interpretation," Mohammed said, "not a translation."

Hayat is accused of supporting terrorism by attending the training camp and is also charged with initially lying about it. His 48-year-old father, Umer Hayat, is being tried in front of a separate jury on charges that he lied about his son's alleged camp attendance.

The trials have revolved around videotaped confessions the father and son gave to FBI agents last June after the younger man returned from a two-year visit to Pakistan. Defense attorneys say Hamid Hayat never went to a training camp but, when pressed by FBI agents, said he did in a misguided attempt to be helpful.

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